DoT mulls regulating calling apps

New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is considering regulating communication apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Skype, primarily from the national security point of view, and has sought comments from the home ministry on the matter before it starts working on a licensing regime.

“Some sort of licensing is required so that these companies store data of Indians within India like telcos do and give information to law enforcement agencies in a manner similar to that provided by telcos,” a senior government official told ET. The official added that the framework is unlikely to be as stringent as that for telcos, but didn’t elaborate.